As the Gehlot-Pilot fight turns uglier, the Congress must reckon with some hard truths or fade into oblivion
The Congress versus Congress war in Rajasthan shows no signs of abating with a legal wrangle over the disqualification notices issued by the Speaker against now-sacked deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and 18 of his MLAs. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is gung-ho about the numbers in his favour but wants the disqualification of the Pilot-led rebel MLAs as it would automatically reduce the number of seats in a floor test and help him sail through with ease. The Gehlot camp has argued that disqualification can be legally challenged in court once the Speaker has gone through with it. Besides as a constitutionally-appointed authority, he can decide on breakaway factions regardless of whether the House is in session or not. So Pilot’s plea is “premature” for the Speaker has merely issued a showcause notice under the anti-defection law and would take action only after the rebel MLAs either explained or refused to clarify why they stayed away from party meetings called by Gehlot. The Pilot camp is adamant about not replying to the disqualification notices and challenged them saying the House was not in session and they hadn’t done or said anything to indicate they were parting ways with the Congress. It termed the notices under the 10th Schedule a way to suppress a difference of opinion as dissent and curb “freedom of speech.” Both sides are playing with the interpretation of clause 2(1)(a) of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution. Going by the several Supreme Court judgments on the matter, it could be said that any anti-party activity was tantamount to voluntarily giving up membership. But Team Pilot argues that it cannot be overstretched to disallow the right to express one’s opinion. Even if they do not join any other party or form an outfit, the rebel MLAs could be declared “unattached” members and would not matter in the floor test either. Meanwhile, Gehlot continued to prepare a back-up plan as he paraded more legislators to bolster the topple theory, with one MLA claiming that he had been offered Rs 35 crore by Pilot himself for defecting before the Rajya Sabha polls, showing the latter as overzealous about his ambition despite being the Pradesh Congress Committee chief. Gehlot even called Pilot nikamma (useless) and nakara (purposeless), making sure his one-time deputy is tormented by insults enough and ends his innings with the Congress soon. Such is the ugliness that there is no point of return. And now that Pilot, too, has become impatient, having given into Gehlot’s provocation, he cannot look back either and has to make his political moves. Already the Gujjar community of three States — Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh — has decided to rally behind him just like they did for his father Rajesh Pilot. This means a sizeable votebase that could make Pilot attractive to the BJP even if he chooses not to join it. He could even use it as a bargaining chip. So clearly, sooner or later, Pilot will have to chart his own course.
For despite intercession by the younger Gandhis, who have not been able to swing the old guard to their side because the latter has their mother Sonia’s blessings, they have not been able to accommodate the concerns of their peers and have been losing them consistently. And while dynastic lineage may see them assume the reins of the party, the absence of organisational elections has meant that adhocism continues and the old guard is just as belligerent about its absolutist ways in return for registering the party’s presence in the country’s electoral map, even if in patches. Its advisors have been able to convince Sonia that even those patches could disappear. Anyway, the consolidation by regional parties in the States has already reduced the Congress to being option C, as in Maharashtra. Though reluctant, it had to go with the Shiv Sena because its legislators wanted to be on the right side of power than squandering a poll performance that wasn’t anyway helmed by the central leadership. This is why a frustrated Rahul Gandhi resigned last August as party’s interim president, unable to recast a system that is routinely sabotaged by the party’s inherent contradictions and undercutting seniors. Yet he will be brought back as the face simply because the old guard doesn’t want to be blamed for driving the party on the road to perdition. But by then it will be too late. And friends who could have helped him won’t stay back as they get a chance to realise their career objectives elsewhere. Certainly not when they have been dumped despite delivering results on the ground and appear to have been used rather than respected. Yes the BJP is avaricious and waiting to defang the Opposition in general and make India “Congress mukt” as soon as possible. But isn’t the Congress itself presenting its rival that temptation? Scindia and Pilot never wanted to leave and may never be happy with the BJP but at least get some positions to satisfy their desire for legacy-seeking. In the Congress, they would have shone though and they know that. But as the grand old party implodes, they will be making a compromise. With nobody to listen to grievances, alternative opinions or factionalism, and with the youth streaming out, the Congress is irrelevant in an India it once shaped.